Life is a balancing act, and you can not escape the fact that you will always be juggling work, home, money, health, and relationships. While we doing all of this juggling we have one goal in mind—to succeed on all fronts.
Many times I have attempted to achieve this goal and have ended up paying a high price—my well-being. In these stressful times, my mental, physical, and spiritual well-being ended up depleted. My life was spinning out of control. There was no balance in my life at all, which is not a great way to live life and unsustainable.
They say that you have to reach a point of desperation before you wake up to the fact that you need to make a choice—do I continue to spin out of control or do I stop spinning and get my life back into balance?
I choose to get my life back into balance. So, here are 5 simple things I did to start my journey of getting my life sorted. Follow these tips so you can get your life back into balance, too.
1. Figure Out What Living a Balanced Life Means to You
Finding balance in your life is about finding your center—the place where you can feel at peace, present, and happy. To get to this place of balance, you need to know what living a balanced life looks like for you.
In his article, How to Lead a Well Balanced Life, Gustavo Razzetti stated that:[1]
“Balance is not something we can get; it’s a state of mind. It’s the realization that life is not stable but in constant motion”.
Me, to get into the mindset of living a balanced life, I wrote down a list of all the activities that I liked doing which gave me a sense of peace, joy, and a feel-good feeling.
I then prioritized these activities as the top 5 that I would commit to maintaining in my life.
- Daily exercise for 60 minutes
- Mindfulness – 10 minutes of meditation daily
- Gratitude Journal – Every night, I write down 5 things I am grateful for that day (sometimes, I miss a few nights but no more than 3 nights).
- Don’t watch TV or go on my phone in bed.
- Healthy eating is a top priority – Limit my alcohol intake to 2 nights a week and my special treats (almond croissants) to one every 2nd Friday!
I knew that I had to create a more positive mindset, and these 5 activities helped me to do that.
2. Stop Trying to Multitask and Learn to Prioritize
Our brain is not wired to multitask. The more we multitask, the more stress we put on our brains. The reason we multitask is that we think multitasking is valuable and a great asset to have. However, what happens is that we end up having hundreds of thoughts rushing around at the same time and constant chatter in our minds!
This slows you down and instead of focusing on the “one thing” you need to do, you end up getting distracted and going from one thing to another and achieving very little. By the end of the day, you are exhausted!
Creating balance is not about cramming many things into your everyday life. It is about knowing what is important and what isn’t and figuring out how much capacity and energy you have to invest in what is important to you.
Knowing your priorities, staying focused, and managing your time are key to you getting your life back into balance.
3. Learn How to Say No and Release the Need to Overachieve
Being prepared to say “no” is an important step to creating balance in your life. There are many reasons why we say yes when we are overcommitted and our lives are spinning out of control.
For me, saying yes to another project or opportunity means believing that people would see that I was a high achiever and successful. I couldn’t say no because that would mean people may think I wasn’t capable or successful. Go figure that one! My life was spinning out of control, but I kept saying yes.
What I ended up doing when I said yes was promising more than I could deliver and working on projects that I didn’t want to do. I learned that by saying no, I created the opportunity for me to work on things that I enjoyed doing, and as a result, ended up getting my life back with so much more energy.
Learning to say “yes” without resentment and “no” without regret is the first step to you living a balanced life.
4. Create Quiet Spaces in Your Life and Mind
When you are living a life that is out of balance, you are on speed dial. A lot is going on in your life, and you have so much to do that you feel like you are running a race that you can’t seem to win!
Your body will tell you when your life is out of control. One of the first signs is poor quality sleep. You have so much on your mind you can’t sleep, and after a while, your energy levels start to drop. Your mind feels foggy, and there seems to be clutter and chaos everywhere in your life.
If you recognize these signs, the best solution is to take action and look for ways to create space in your life where you can sit quietly and calmly and feel at peace.
Be aware that you won’t reach this state of calmness and clarity straight away because your mind and your body are wired for chaos, clutter, and constant chatter. It is a step-by-step process.
Here are 3 things I did that helped me create the space I needed to be calm and at peace:
- I downloaded the app Calm – an app for sleep and meditation. I committed to an end-of-day ritual where I would take a shower, have a cup of calming tea, and then meditate using Calm.
- I scheduled a massage every 2 weeks for 3 months and paid ahead for all the sessions. There were no excuses for me to put off making an appointment because I was too busy and had no time. If I had to postpone, I had to reschedule straight away because I had paid for the sessions.
- Journaling – this is a practice that takes minimal commitment. However, the results for me had a tremendous impact. Journaling allowed me to create space in my mind and a sense of calm in my body. I was able to acknowledge what was on my mind, and this meant that my thoughts and feelings left my brain and my body, and I felt at peace.
5. Embrace a Healthy Lifestyle—Healthy Diet and Regular Exercise
A healthy diet fuels natural energy and boosts your confidence and self-esteem. Exercise releases endorphins, which are the chemicals in our body that make us feel good.
I scheduled an appointment with a nutritionist to figure out what healthy food plan would work best for me. I paid for a 2-month consultation up front, which meant that I would be less likely to stray and make excuses as to why I couldn’t stick to the program!
I have always been very active. However, since turning 50, I found that my body no longer required high-intensity training, but it needed low-intensity and body strength workouts instead. I gave up my running and gym membership and took up yoga, pilates, and walking!
I am 100 percent convinced that having a healthy diet and exercising regularly are the foundations from which I can sustain living a well-balanced life.
My Thoughts on Self-Discipline
When my life starts to feel out of balance, I know that I am lacking self-discipline. I have learned that self-discipline is one of the best tools to help me get on top of things in my life. Without self-discipline, I waste time, procrastinate, and fail to follow through on things I know I should do. As a result, I feel guilty, overwhelmed, and out of sorts with myself. This is not a great place to be.
Following these 5 steps to get my life back was key to me committing to living a well-balanced life where over time, self-discipline and procrastination no longer became a major issues for me to overcome.
Living a well-balanced life isn’t just crucial for your health, happiness, and well-being but also essential for boosting your productivity, managing stress, and living your life to your fullest potential.
